Everyone Runs Out of Time
by interrupting
Summary: Slightly different take on Padlock, in which Paige is trying to kill Tony before he can kill Manny, Harry, and Robin, because she is also trying to kill them. Somewhere along the way, Tony has fallen for Paige, but he realizes that she will never fall for him, and that the end of their fights will only come with the end of one of their lives.


Tony cradled a bleeding Paige in his arms, smiling and stroking her hair gently even as she struggled and spat at him. Her blood stained the front of his red dress shirt, dying it an even deeper red, and less noticeably the dark blue fabric of his suit jacket. His own blood flowed down his face from a gash above his eyebrow, but he didn't even seem to notice it.

"You know, my dear," he murmured lovingly, running his fingers through her blood drenched hair, "I truly would have never thought we'd end up in such a position." Paige glared weakly at Tony's smiling face, opening her mouth to tell him off with some rather colorful words, but her stomach cramped and she turned to the side, retching and coughing up blood. It hit the floor and splattered, leaving dark, almost black stains on the dirty tile.

With a loud gasp, Tony cradled Paige even closer to his chest. "We can't have you soiling your dress any further! There'll be no time for you to have it cleaned once we're done here, and you must look your best for what I've got planned."

Humming a tune, Tony made his way into the basement of his house. Paige had snuck into his house, hoping to catch him off guard and end his life swiftly so she could focus her attention on the three other humans she had her eye on. But Tony had been waiting, fooling her into thinking that the house was empty and attacking first when she let her confusion get the best of her.

Tony laid Paige down on the table, frowning not at her loud groan of pain but at the position in which she laid. Her head and feet were the only things resting fully on the table, the sword impaled cleanly through her stomach kept everything else floating painfully above the surface.

"Oh...that can't be comfortable." With an inquisitive look, Tony began to twist and turn his sword in her midsection, trying and failing to dislodge it as she screamed in agony. He stopped once he realized it wasn't budging.

"Hmm, maybe we could try it this way?" Deliberately making eye contact with the rainbow-haired female, Tony grabbed the hilt of his sword and tilted it towards him. Slowly, he pulled the sword towards him, drawing it out of her and cutting a new gash in her stomach as it made its way out. His smile twisted into something more sinister, then, as she writhed and thrashed with her eyes closed against the pain.

"There, don't you feel much better now?

Paige's vision swam in and out of focus; five Tony's smiled down at her with that disgustingly saccharine smile that she ached to wipe off his face. Slowly, she raised her hand to her stomach and began to probe carefully at the wound there, withdrawing her hand quickly as pain shot through her body.

"W...why?" she croaked out.

"Oh, my dear Paige, the question is not why, but why not? We've been feuding for quite some while now, and it seemed like as good a time as any for me to end it. Time is a precious thing, not to be wasted." He glanced at his wristwatch and gasped. "Which is why we must get moving! Nightfall is almost upon us."

He bustled around the basement for a bit, returning to Paige's side with a roll of duct tape and a length of rope looped around his wrist. He slid his sword back into its place on his shoulder and gently picked her up. Tony stumbled a bit, not expecting the extra dead weight from her limp limbs, but recovered quickly and began to hurry out of the house. In his haste, he banged Paige's head against the doorframe, sending her into the dark abyss of unconsciousness.

When Paige came to, the first thing she noticed was a searing pain in her abdomen. She felt it throughout her entire body, and it made her head throb. The second thing she registered was the cheerful tune being hummed by Tony. It sounded distant, like he was standing a few feet away, but suddenly it was too loud, right in her ear as Tony emerged from the tree behind her.

"I'm glad to see you've finally awakened, darling. I do hope this environment is to your liking." She looked around slowly, only vaguely able to make out the tree trunks and grass surrounding her in the moonlight. Eventually, her eyes settled on his face and he flashed a bright smile at her, sitting down on the grass in front of her and getting started on tying her ankles together.

She struggled weakly as he worked, providing nothing but a small annoyance to the focused man in front of her. She stopped moving as her ankles began to burn, the rope chafing uncomfortably against her skin. Her wrists burned too, she hadn't realized her struggling had been a full body activity.

"What..." Her voice was barely above a whisper. She coughed painfully and spoke again, her voice raspy but audible. " What are you going to do with me?"

"Absolutely nothing! That's the best part. Once I'm finished tying you up, I plan on just leaving you here. Only time will tell what's going to happen to you." He tied the final knot and sat back, smiling at his handiwork.

"A fitting environment for our first and final date, don't you think?" His voice was tinged with regret, much to Paige's surprise. "It's such a shame our relationship was so turbulent, I'd like to think we would have made quite the couple. Tell me, Paige, why were we always fighting?"

Paige racked her brain for an answer to his question. It had been true that she was the one to instigate the first of their duels, but why? She was sure there was a reason, but she could not remember it at all. She squeezed her eyes shut and they swam when she opened them, unable to focus on anything.

Tony noticed her disorientation and smiled sadly. "I'm afraid this is farewell, darling." He stood and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and tucked her hair behind her ears; the only form of retaliation she could muster up was a frown. "I'll always cherish the time we've spent together."

She watched as one, then two, then four Tony's walked away from her, swinging his sword as one would a cane as he retreated. When he was finally out of sight, she let her head hang against her shoulders and began to cry.

She was frustrated with herself, infuriated at how easily he had flipped her ambush on its head, how quickly she became a frightened little mouse in the face of a sly cat. She resented how easily he cornered her this time, how the entire fight felt like he was merely toying with her. She barely even put up a fight, which was incredibly unlike her, and her tears fell faster at the thought.

What angered her the most was the genuine affection he seemed to harbor for her. The tenderness in his voice always threw her off, often giving him the upper hand. At first, Paige used to think it was just a ruse, an underhanded tactic to distract her, but as the frequency of their encounters increased, she began to doubt herself more and more. His last words to her seemed genuinely tinged with grief, but why? He was the one that put her in this position in the first place.

Trying to decipher these things made Paige's head throb even harder, and soon enough her vision went black for the second time.

A great deal of time later, Paige regained consciousness but kept her eyes closed. She could hear leaves rustling as the creatures of the night awoke from their slumber. Soon, she could hear growling, softly at first but increasing in volume as whatever was approaching her got closer. She hoped that she would pass out again, instantly, so she would feel no pain, but Paige knew that's not how things worked.

Or maybe they did, because she was out once again after the first bite.


End file.
